Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
San Jose State
'Dogs Stunned in 7-3 Loss to SJSU
5/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
By: Matt Burkholder
mburkholder@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Working a tie game in the bottom of the eighth, a potential third out was negated when the first base umpire ruled Fresno State first baseman Kevin Viers' foot was off the bag. The San Jose State runner at first was safe and the go-ahead run rounded third and scored on the play. The Spartans plated three more runs that inning to grab a 7-3 win over the Bulldogs Saturday afternoon at Municipal Stadium.
Tim Borst entered the eighth inning having retired nine straight batters since being inserted into the game for Fresno State starter Anthony Arias. The 11th batter Borst faced, David Campbell, broke his streak, hitting a double. Borst retired the next batter for the second out of the eighth and the ball was handed over to Casey Rodriguez.
Rodriguez got behind in the count with the first batter he faced, and then elected to intentionally walk the batter. That would be the only batter Rodriguez would face as he gave way to Garrett Mundell. The Bulldog senior captain induced the potential groundout to shortstop Korby Batesole against the first batter he faced, Brett Bautista. Batesole fired to first and Bautista was safe on the play when it was ruled Viers' foot was not on the bag. Ozzy Braff rounded third and gave San Jose State a 4-3 lead.
The inning unraveled from there-on-out. Batesole misplayed a ground ball hit his direction on the next at-bat, the ball rolled into the outfield and the Spartans scored two more. Following the back-to-back errors, SJSU rallied for back-to-back singles that manufactured one more run. San Jose State took a 7-3 lead after the bottom of the eighth.
Fresno State (22-25, 12-11 MW) battled back from a 3-0 deficit the Spartans built after plating solo runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings. Spartan freshman Shane Timmons was responsible for both runs in the second and fourth, taking Arias for solo home runs to lead off both innings.
After a wholesale defensive change for the 'Dogs after the top half of the fifth, Fresno State rallied behind its new players in the game - Jesse Medrano, Brody Russell, McCarthy Tatum and Nick Warren. Three of the four substitutions got on base with their first plate appearances.
"Those guys that came in, in the middle changed the game which is exactly what you want to happen," said head coach Mike Batesole. "They fought back and they're the ones I feel bad for. The fought back and put us back exactly where we wanted to be, they gave us a chance to win."
In the sixth, Russell doubled to the left center gap in his first plate appearance of the series and would score the first run for the Bulldogs on the very next at-bat. Kenny Corey followed Russell's at-bat with an RBI single. Viers produced a sacrifice fly to score Corey and the Bulldogs trailed 3-2 after the sixth.
Russell hit the third of three straight Bulldog singles in the seventh to even the game 3-3.
Fresno State will face off with San Jose State looking for the series win Sunday at 1 p.m. The series rubber game will feature freshman Ricky Thomas (2-2, 3.91 ERA) on the hill for the Bulldogs and Hilario Tover (1-4, 9.34 ERA) for the Spartans.
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